Meetup fail

I'm so bad with cell phones. I basically have it because my horse fell through a bridge in 2009 and I needed the fire department and had no idea where I was....so a cell phone is just peace of mind for me now.

So when Ani called last night to ask where our meetup point was, I didn't answer, cuz I'd left my phone in the tack room.

I texted her at 8, still gloomy and not quite daylight, and told her where, and again when I was on my way. The last message I got from her was from last night, "I guess I'll ride alone then." How sad!

I went to our meeting point and sat on a bench, letting Mag graze. I waited and waited, and she never came.

Oh well, it was a perfect day in the woods, the leaves floating down, giving me the sensation of being aware of 3D, seeing through the many layers of leaves falling. I was on Mag's back, and he was very hesitant about a few scary things but mostly he was lazy. I appreciated that he was extremely careful on the technical spots, except for one time when he almost went down on a muddy slope! You know that moment where you FEEL your leg being crushed by the side of a horse lying on it? Yikes.

Then Mag had another meltdown. I'm not gonna worry too much about this, the 2nd one in a month. Because he's so non-reactive most of the time, it's interesting to me to see what really gets his attention.

First we heard them. High pitched voices, squeals, lots of them. Kids. For the longest time we could not see them, only hear them, as they were ahead of us, approaching. Mag froze. I realized he'd become a statue, not a good sign.

When the kids appeared, I thought he'd calm down - clearly they're people.

But no, because every single kiddy had a large plastic sack. That made about 30 sacks, with three adults guarding.

Mag was not with me at all, he was shaking with his heartbeat. OK, I'm off then.

The way he was standing there,  I couldn't get my lead rope untied quick enough to hold him. I laughed and talked to him, but he was in a sideways reality where little people walk on trails in large groups.

Mag felt, "This cannot be happening."

I laughed, "Death by forest children?"

I put him to the side and told the first adult the kids could pass beside us, but it was pretty tight, what was I thinking? Her colleague said, "We'll send the kids up the hill, no worries." I suddenly realized how much easier it is for the kids to scale the hillside than my horse, it was too steep for him. So the kids flooded up the hill, not quieting a bit, in fact, several kids were drawn to my horse, analyzing him, grinning, pointing....

I couldn't stand the suspense, I asked, "What are they doing?"

An adult said, "We're collecting trash."

I made a face, "Um, there's no trash here."

She shrugged, "It's an assignment." Hm!

I thought how disappointed those kids would be to return with empty plastic sacks.

How the one kid who found, perhaps, one piece of trash would be both admired and resented for his success.

Mag started breathing again as the kiddies scaled the hillside about our heads.

I told two of the ladies, "My horse is afraid of the kids, and their sacks." In case that was not obvious! I guess it wasn't, they couldn't grasp that a horse would be afraid of kids, but one of them said, "Well, they are particularly LOUD!" *grin*

One girl pointed to his feet and said, "He's missing a shoe!"

The lady said, "He is only wearing them in the front."

She was confused, but the sweet girl waved at me as we finally moved away. I waved at her sheepishly, embarrassed that we'd been a "spectacle." I paused longer, I wanted Mag to stay as long as possible to fully soak in that experience.

After that I just led him the rest of the way home, and it was odd the way his hooves sounded after Seli's trim yesterday. His bare hind hooves were ringing so loud on the pavement. I kept turning to look at them, "My goodness!" and Mag wondered, but I think he knew what I was looking at.

Once home, I worked on that backing up cue Kati wants me to teach him, and then, since someone brought it up in my blog's comments, I worked more on getting Mag to pick up his Jolly Ball. That is going well, he actually picked it up for a moment. He's got the biting it down pretty well. I say, I suck at clicker training. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong but it should be much easier, and it's not.


It was a day of relationship building, learning about each other. Mag learned that *I* am not afraid of tiny humans with sacks. I learned that he's much easier to ride when we're not alone, but I'll work on it a little at a time.

I texted TP (fancy arena lady) and asked if we could go out for a little loop. (She's just now starting to ride outside her arena on her Arabian.) Need more riding buddies! But, I'm so, so grateful for who I have now. Last year I had only S1, and she doesn't ride in Winter, and is an hour away by hoof. This year, well, you know. I'm feeling blessed.

Not only do I have a couple people to ride with, I have a trainer who seems to be what I need right now.

Re: photography, lots of the profi photos I have do not, somehow, reflect the character of my animals. My cat, for example, made a weird face at the huge camera, and I wouldn't recognize her. Often the horse I see in the photo is prettier than the one I know. The camera doesn't lie, or does it?: )

This photo shows the Mag I know.